I knew we had been a Club Penguin (CP) family for a long time, I just didn’t remember exactly how long. So before writing this post I decided to check. It turns out that our first and oldest paid account is now almost five years old. That’s almost as old as the twins are. I remember starting that old account with the eldest, and thinking carefully what we would name her penguin. We decided to name her after a character in our favorite Nintendo series of all time, The Legend of Zelda. Let’s call her “Zelda” for now. She was “born” in December 2006. If we ever played for free, it was short lived. I, er… we loved the game from the moment we started playing it.
I remember the early days of CP, pre Disney. It was a great game and consumed us for long periods of time. When we first started to play I’d help my daughter out by wracking up the coinage so that she could buy the newest and coolest (pun intended) igloo in the catalog. She’s had them all from castles to snow globes to tree houses. My favorite two games, and those which in my experience one can make the most coins at the quickest, are Puffle Roundup (at which I excel if I do say so myself) and Cart Surfer (which I am also darn good at).
Now that she is a middle schooler she is well able to earn her own virtual keep. She doesn’t need my help, nor does she want it, although she has been known to ask me with an ocasional Field-Ops mission. Shhhh. Don’t tell her I told you.
Disney has done a great job with the game, in my opinion, and has added great features and story lines including the exploits of Herbert P. Bear, the Teleporter and the Field-Ops missions. Perhaps my favorite addition to the game is Card-Jitsu. Just this past June 20 I’d noted here in the blog that I was logging in to the game to find out what was new when I noticed that the game had “gone missing”. Only a few days after that, the new map was added.
I wish I’d had the foresight to take screen shots of the game in its earliest days. Sadly, I had no way of knowing I might want them at some point down the road. However, I did take one of the “old” map some time before the switch was made.
It was a fine map, and one which I’d watch grow over time with the addition of The Cove, The Forest and, ofcourse, The Dojo. Now the map is larger and interactive. I can’t say we needed the update because in truth my seven year olds know the precise location of every store and game without having to have it spelled out for them. But honestly it is quite nice and, I believe, much more user friendly than the Teleporter. Naturally comparing the Teleporter and the Map is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit, but one – the former – will take you to a precise location or room within the CP world, whereas the map will take you to a geographic area.
Both the teleporter and the map serve their purposes admirably, but for me, I’ll take the map any day. One of the things I like the most about CP is its light, airy and colorful nature, and the map rolls merrily along with it. I don’t mind walking from a main outdoors area into a building and then to an upper room unless I am in a rush to solve a puzzle. It’s a nice break in the day for the girls and Mommy. I’m glad the little ones are still young. I have a few more years of playing left ahead of me.
Post Script
One of the twins just walked in and saw this post as it went live. She said “Is that the old map?” I said “Yes.” She replied “I miss it.”
Out of the mouths of babes.
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I was not compensated in any way, shape or form for writing this post. We (and I) just love this game.
